John F's DIY: Small Tips & Tricks

[John F]

I'm starting this thread to post some simple, easy and (hopefully) useful DIY tips and tricks that will make your fishing experience a little more pleasant.

Eventually, not all of these will be my ideas (in such cases I'll dully acknowledge the source) or maybe some of these may have been put out there before without my knowledge.

In case there's a way to improve on these, I'd appreciate any input.

Hopefully some of these will help someone catch the elusive BIG ONE!

Enjoy!

[John F]

Fine tunning the ballast of a topwater lure
When building a topwater lure (be it a popper, stickbait, plug, etc.), depending on the application and materials used, fine tuning the ballast and weight distribution to achieve the desired results can be a bit of a mission. After a bit of testing in the bathtub or whatever, the lure is painted, rigged and then found that it doesn't perform in saltwater quite exactly as expected! Damn! Back to the workshop! Well, a trick I use, especially to add the missing bit of weight, is tin solder wire. I wrap it a couple of times around the tail wire (or the belly swivel) and tight it with pliers. All done!

[John F]

Removing vinyl stickers and decals
I had an old and rather large (25 cm) sticker on my vehicle. I wanted to remove it and didn't really wanted to scratch the paint. An easy way of doing it is using a heat gun or (better yet) the missus hairdryer. It softens the vinyl and it peals off quite easily. Wipe out any small portions of glue with a soapy rug and you're good to go!

[John F]

Saving on heat shrink
When rigging offshore traces one often uses heat shrink to keep things snug and tight. These are wonderful inventions that came to replace the trusted electrical tape. However, I find it a bit expensive (for what they are) and sometimes a bit hard to find in tackle shops. What I do? Use them both. Wrap your trace with electrical tape making sure sure to go over at least half of the previous wrap and then finish off with a smaller piece of heat shrink just to keep it secured and prevent the electrical tape from coming off. It will last a long time and will save you a few bucks to spend on fuel!

[John F]

Keeping your anchor hatch scratch-free
One of the few places that seldom gets inspected with regularity is the anchor hatch. Let's be honest. If you are not into bottom fishing how often do you actually  use your anchor? Because of that, these hatches tend to be used and abused and end up looking terrible. The anchor is thrown inside and it dangles and drags scratching the gelcoat and fiberglass inside. I used a plastic crate that (very luckly) fits snugly inside MAXIMVS anchor hatch. This way the anchor is tightly stored and will not damage the gelcoat/fiberglass.

[John F]

Keeping your tackle dry
Humidity is a killer for tackle (both reels, terminal tackle and tools) and once the basic washing is done (and the tackle looks dry) I bet everybody just packs their tackle and stores it away. The reels will still be damp inside for a week or so and there will always be a bit of humidity in your tackle box. Here's a trick to help keep things a bit dryer - Silica bags. Every electrical/electronic appliance (and even shoes!) come with silica bags these days. When packing your reels with the neoprene covers, keep at least one or two inside the reel covers. Put a lot more in your tackle box. Every now and then take the bags out and put then in the oven for about 30 minutes at 60o to extract the humidity. This will surely help maintain your tackle.

[WJ]

Thank John    

[FishStyx]

Nice post mate. This should perhaps be a board on it's own. Tackle tips, boating tips etc etc.


 

[John F]

Thanks! I suppose we should let it grow a bit more and then we could think about turning it into its own board?!

[PH]

Thanks, JohnF. Great idea !!

[SAfish]

Some very handy tips. 

[J-Rock]

  for some very handy tips. It's so true what you're saying... We wash our tackle and after a couple of hours of drying we assume it's dry and pack it away. Will start collecting sillica bags.

[John F]

Grippin' with old carpet
Few things are more annoying than slippery tools when fishing. I used pieces of old carpet and wrapped it around pliers, gaffs, boat hook, etc. with 30-50 Lb old line. It gives me a great grip when fishing and it lasts a long time.   
 
 

[Manuel Junior]

Nice post John F!!!!!

[MIKE PIKE]

  ... some interesting and handy tips Marcos. .

[John F]

Fillet ID
Sometimes identifying your fillet after packing and storing it in the freezer for a few weeks is difficult. Sure, YFT is rosy and easy but whitish fleshed fish such as couta, wahoo, etc. may pose a problem. Permanent markers would do the trick for a short time, but it will eventually rub off. Here's a tip. Cut a small piece of skin of the fish and put it inside the plastic bag with your fillet. You should be able to ID the species a few weeks after and if you can't then... well... that fillet is wasted anyway!

PS: I read this a long time ago on a site I don't remember anymore. Works quite well.

[Rods]

Some excellent tips here JohnF. 

[John F]

Keep your zippers lubed
Plastic and metallic zippers are commonly used these days in lures bags, rod tubes, and other tackle holders. Usually these are used and seldom lubricated or washed properly after a day's fishing, only to be found a few weeks later surrounded by a whitish salt ring and seized! To prevent this I use a few drops of a multi purpose lube oil (Q20) along the zipper from time to time. Run it a few times to spread the oil and the magic is done! No more seized zippers and it will last a long time!

[SAfish]

Now you tell me. The zipper on my one rod tube broke last week. 

[PH]

Thanks Marcos!!
Your tips and tricks are not so "small" as per the heading !